Sense of impermanence

Other Names:

Obsession with contemporaneity
Preoccupation with modernism
Abuse of relevance
Erosion of historical continuity
Loss of awareness of time immemorial

Claim:

Civilization means something more than energy, will and creative power. It is best defined by a sense of permanence. But society is now possessed by a terrible sense of impermanence and hence by an obsessive need to arrest the processes of aging and dying. Contemporaneity is imposed as a criterion of relevance throughout society. Fine arts, religion and education are dismissed as worthless unless considered 'relevant' and 'accessible'. If knowledge, belief and beauty have merit only insofar as they assuage the present, whilst being subject to constant shifts in perception as fashion and material demands dictate, then they must continue to diminish in quality and esteem. Without continuity, tradition, schools of thought and disciplines, respect for the path and faith in the future, pride in the achievements and destiny of the human race, then existence has no purpose other than to serve or render tolerable the exigencies of its brief duration. Modern society has forfeited that natural indifference to time which is the secret of its transcendence and even its mere enjoyment. Pursuit of happiness is increasingly identified with 'spare time', with holidays and retirement.

Counter Claim:

Everything depends. Nothing is always. Everything is sometimes.

Narrower Problems:

Dismissal of past cultural achievements

About the Encyclopedia

The Encyclopedia of World Problems and Human Potential is a collaboration between UIA and Mankind 2000, started in 1972. It is the result of an ambitious effort to collect and present information on the problems with which humanity is confronted, as well as the challenges such problems pose to concept formation, values and development strategies. Problems included are those identified in international periodicals but especially in the documents of some 60,000 international non-profit organizations, profiled in the Yearbook of International Organizations.

The Encyclopedia includes problems which such groups choose to perceive and act upon, whether or not their existence is denied by others claiming greater expertise. Indeed such claims and counter-claims figure in many of the problem descriptions in order to reflect the often paralyzing dynamics of international debate. In the light of the interdependence demonstrated among world problems in every sector, emphasis is placed on the need for approaches which are sufficiently complex to encompass the factions, conflicts and rival worldviews that undermine collective initiative towards a promising future.

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About UIA

The Union of International Associations (UIA) is a research institute and documentation centre, based in Brussels. It was established in 1907, by Henri la Fontaine (Nobel Peace Prize laureate of 1913), and Paul Otlet, a founding father of what is now called information science.

Non-profit, apolitical, independent, and non-governmental in nature, the UIA has been a pioneer in the research, monitoring and provision of information on international organizations, international associations and their global challenges since 1907.

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Sense of impermanence

About the Encyclopedia

About UIA